Tomato 🍅

The tomato displays a plump, glossy red sphere with a leafy green crown at the top, rendered in vivid crimson across most platforms. Its smooth, rounded form captures the fruit's characteristic shine, making it instantly recognizable in any conversation.

Beyond the kitchen, tomatoes carry surprising cultural weight in online spaces. The emoji works literally when discussing cooking, recipes, or grocery shopping, but it's also used to express disapproval or criticism—a nod to the old theater tradition of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes at bad performances. On social media, you'll see it paired with other food emoji to discuss meal prep or restaurant recommendations.

The tomato has become particularly prevalent in discussions about gardening, farming, and plant-based diets. Gen Z users sometimes deploy it ironically or playfully when teasing a friend about a questionable take or decision, drawing from that historical "bad performance" association.

While the visual design is fairly consistent across platforms, Apple's and Google's interpretations differ slightly in leaf shape and glossiness. The emoji was approved as part of Unicode 0.6 and added to Emoji in 2010, making it one of the oldest food emoji in circulation.